


when the North Star breaks through

by tigriswolf



Series: Alternate Universe [15]
Category: Stargate SG-1, White Collar
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Long Lost/Secret Relatives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-08
Updated: 2011-09-08
Packaged: 2017-10-23 12:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/250543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the middle of an undercover op with his FBI keeper, Neal Caffrey picks up an artifact awaiting auction. A light flashes and Neal falls, unconscious before he hits the floor. Peter gets him immediate attention, reports in, paces around the hospital, and almost punches the Air Force officer who arrives to take Neal away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	when the North Star breaks through

**Author's Note:**

> Title: when the North Star breaks through  
> Fandom: SG-1/White Collar  
> Disclaimer: not my characters  
> Warnings: AU for both shows; I’ve yet to see the later seasons of SG-1, but I’ve read fic  
> Pairings: none stated  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 950  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: Blue

Claire Ballard had a cousin named Marcy. Besides her father, Marcy was her only family in the world.

Marcy was a small-time grifter and her partner was a fighter who didn’t go down when the mob told him to.

And while Claire set up an exhibition in New York, Marcy’s partner was beat to death to send a message. 

Marcy, five months pregnant, ran. 

Claire and her husband died days later and their son entered the same system his cousin would flee in fifteen years time. And it would be almost two decades after that when they would meet, Claire and Marcy’s boys. Both survivors, both geniuses, and both able to find trouble anywhere.

o0o

In the middle of an undercover op with his FBI keeper, Neal Caffrey picks up an artifact awaiting auction. A light flashes and Neal falls, unconscious before he hits the floor. Peter gets him immediate attention, reports in, paces around the hospital, and almost punches the Air Force officer who arrives to take Neal away. Captain Harrison’s superior, Colonel Mitchell, takes over, but Peter still refuses to budge, and no one’s making any progress in diagnosing Neal, much less fixing him. And he’s getting worse.

Colonel Mitchell’s superior, General O’Neill, arrives and tells Peter to come with him and Neal to the one place that might help. Peter looks at Neal, still and small in the bed, and agrees.

o0o

Dr. Daniel Jackson greets Peter in the infirmary of an underground base. O’Neill calls him the ancient expert, which means nothing to Peter.

“Can you help Neal?” Peter demands, part of him glad they confiscated his gun. He may have very well drawn it to wave around, if he still had it.

“We examined the device, Agent Burke,” Jackson says soothingly, his eyes as blue as Neal’s. Peter hadn’t believed that possible. “I think we can recreate what happened in reverse. That should wake him up without damage.”

 _Without damage_ , shit. Peter hadn’t thought that, of what might be different. Brain injuries are so dangerous, and nothing is _physically_ wrong with Neal. He just won’t wake up. In fact, he’s slipping deeper, further away.

Peter takes a slow, deep breath. Jackson smiles at him and walks over to O’Neill. They talk in soft voices; Peter ignores them to focus on Neal, looking so young on the bed.

Finally, Jackson goes to the artifact, in a plastic bag on a tray. He reaches into the bag, grabs the artifact, and says something in a language Peter doesn’t recognize.

Whatever it is, it works. Neal gasps and sits up, gagging. Peter sighs in relief but keeps his distance while Dr. Fraiser, CMO of the base, attends to Neal.

As Neal catches his breath, Peter notices from the corner of his eye that Jackson is staring down at the bed, mouth open in shock.

O’Neill notices too, because he says, “Danny?”

Jackson shakes his head, mutters, “It’s nothing.” He smiles once more at Peter and walks out of the infirmary.

Neal is panicking on the bed and Peter slips in to bark, “Neal!” Neal freezes till he focuses on Peter and then he asks, “What’s going on?”

“Let them help you,” Peter says. “We’ll get the explanation when you’re better.”

Neal looks him hard in the eyes but acquiesces.

o0o

Neal is back to a hundred percent within the hour. O’Neill slips out for a little while but comes back to lead Neal and Peter to a briefing room. Jackson and a blonde woman O’Neill introduces as Colonel Carter, PhD, are the only other people in attendance.

First they are given non-disclosure agreements, then Peter sits in disbelief and Neal grows steadily more excited as O’Neill—with many interjections by Carter and Jackson—explains about the Ancients and the various technology they left behind, only affected by people with a special Ancient gene.

“A gene you have in abundance, Caffrey,” O’Neill finishes. “We’ve only come across a few people as strong or stronger than you.”

Neal is bouncing in his seat, grinning. Peter shakes his head.   He doesn’t want to believe it, but a bright light knocked Neal down and out for hours with no physical cause or symptoms. 

O’Neill watches Neal with the gentle amusement of a parent at a playground. Carter looks as excited as Neal, but Jackson has something like painful hope on his face.

“Mr. Caffrey,” Jackson begins. “What do you… can you tell me about your parents?”

Neal’s face closes off just as quick as when someone at work makes a jab about his life before or prison. “Why do you ask?” he replies, icily polite.

Peter interrupts. “You’ve checked his record?”

Carter says, “Yes, when we first realized he’d activated an artifact."

“There’s nothing before he was fifteen,” O’Neill adds. “We’re curious.”

But Neal’s staring at Jackson, and he says quietly, “My mother was Marcy Ballard.”

Aside from Havisham, Peter may be the only person in the world to understand how hard it was for Neal to say that.

Jackson smiles and tells him, “My mother was Claire Ballard.”

Peter realizes instantly why Jackson’s eyes are just as blue as Neal’s. And glancing from one to the other, they have the same hopeful expression, the last-ditch dream of an orphan that maybe this family will, _at last, for keeps_ , be the one.

Peter shoots a glare at O’Neill, who nods. “Carter, Burke,” he says. “Let’s go grab some supper.”

Carter stands and hurries from the room. Peter follows, meeting O’Neill at the door. “Guess we’ll be seeing more of each other, then,” the general says jovially.

“Guess so,” Peter replies calmly.

He hopes this family is everything Neal has dreamed.


End file.
